So where are the used PCs going?

Worldwide demand for used PCs exceeds the supply, according to a report released today by Gartner.

Only 44 percent of these PCs are reused and only 20 percent are finding their way to markets where the demand is greatest–the Middle East, Africa and Asia/Pacific, especially China, said Meike Escherich, a Gartner analyst in the U.K.

Export tariffs and high transportation costs against the big exporters–North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia–inhibit used machines from moving as well as they could, and Microsoft’s high hardware requirements for Windows Vista creates an even bigger supply.

Still, used branded PCs, especially machines that still have their original software license stickers, are in greater demand, Escherich said, because they are attractive to software pirates.